New Cars In Stock, June 15, 2006
The Scalextric TransAm Mustang and L88 Corvette have both been around for quite a while, but Scalextric continues to find colorful and historic versions to produce.
The latest Mustang is #C2739, the #3 Troy Promotions car driven by Tony DeLorenzo in the 1971 TransAm series. After running Camaros in 1970 with less success than they had hoped for the Troy promotions team of DeLorenzo and Jerry Thompson looked for something better for the following year. And what could be better than ex-factory 1970 Mustangs, the cars that had dominated the 1970 series and won the championship for George Follmer?
In the 10 races of the 1971 series DeLorenzo and Thompson scored 7 top-5 finishes between them. This was in competition with Mark Donohue and Peter Revson in Javelins and George Follmer and Peter Gregg driving Bud Moore Mustangs.
Both of the Troy Mustangs still exist and race in historic events, though they have been restored in their original factory paint schemes.
The Scalextric TransAm Mustang, along with the TransAm Camaro with essentially the same chassis, is great fun to drive. It’s fast but forgiving and offers multiple magnet positions to allow you to place the magnet where it will give you just the amount of added grip you prefer. By now, both the Mustang and the Camaro have been done in enough different versions to make up quite a respectable classic TransAm grid.
The L88 Corvette has also been modeled in numerous versions as Scalextric works its way through the most historically significant examples of the car. The latest one, C2750, is the car driven by legendary Corvette racer Don Yenko with Sunray DX sponsorship. As this is written the 1:1 scale car has just completed a ground-up restoration and will be seen at several historic races this year. The car’s present owner, Marc Mehl of New York, assisted Scalextric with its research on the car. Marc is also the owner of the black and silver Vince Gimondo Camaro recently modeled by Scalextric.
The Corvette, too, is a fun car to drive, though it needs a pair of Indy Grips IG1009 silicone tires to match the box-stock performance of the Mustang and the Camaro. With this one change the three cars race together very well on our Scalextric Sport test track. 1:1 scale C3 Corvettes raced with 1969 and 1970 Mustangs and Camaros in the TransAm and in the SCCA’s GT-1 class from the early 70s well into the 80s, and they usually run together in historic races today.
Scalextric made a small but welcome change on these two new releases by replacing the chrome finish on the wheels of previous versions with a more authentic metallic silver that captures the look of magnesium racing wheels much better. The cars are priced at $44.99 each.
Other new and recent cars from Scalextric now in stock at Electric Dreams:
C2643 Ford Escort RS1600, $44.99.
C2738 Dodge Viper, $44.99. This is the car driven by Rob Foster in the SCCA Speed World Challenge series. Scalextric did not get the car’s green color quite right, rendering it as more of a mint green than the life-size car’s medium green finish. But the model is otherwise quite accurate.
C2572 IRL Dallara. Tony Kanaan’s 7-11 car from Andretti – Green Racing, $29.99.
C2638 Nissan Skyline GTR, $42.99. This is the Calsonic entry from the Japanese GT Championship. Performance is comparable to the C2721 Nissan 350Z reviewed earlier.
And from Fly…
FLY32, Ford Capri Racing, “Banzai” livery.